I woke up this morning with two nicely sized “girls” and now I was getting ready to go for what feels like my third mastectomy day. Did you ever see that movie “Ground Hog Day”? Where the newscaster wakes up every day and it is the same day over and over again. That is what I felt like, every time I get used to the “girls” they get taken away again. Luckily for me when the first reconstruction failed not all the tissue died so I still would have some chest just not the overly abundant chest that I was used to.
The surgery went ok, there were no complications and it actually took very little time to take them out. I was nowhere nearly as sore removing them as I was when they got put in. I went to my follow ups and healed up really well and started to learn about the plan that the surgeon had for making me some new “girls”.
There was a procedure that he recommended for the radiated side. This procedure is called Latissimus Dorsi Flap. This procedure involves an incision from spinal column to sternum. The doctor will move my left shoulder muscle and tissue and pull it around to the front and make me a new breast with this muscle and tissue. This was going to be a complicated surgery and I would have to be in the hospital for four days just to give me time to recover. I would have a pain pump directly into the shoulder area to reduce the pain without making me all loopy. I think it basically blocked the nerves so the pain was not there. One major complication that can happen post-surgery is you can lose mobility, flexibility and your shoulder can sort of lock up. To reduce this complication I had to make my arm move, force my arm to go over my head to make sure the joint stays loose.
I got to come home as planned and my shoulder never locked up.